Ed Gillespie on Principles & Values

Don't let the Left fill the vacuum of minority voters

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who is running for Senate in Virginia, appealed to his party to reach out to minorities and other groups instead of letting the left "fill that vacuum." Gillespie, speaking at the Conservative
Political Action Conference, is running against popular Democratic Sen. Mark Warner in a state that has grown more diverse--and increasingly friendly to Democrats.

The Republican argued that it was important for his party to "be there" in communities
that have trended away from the GOP, noting that candidates don't need to speak Spanish to go on the Univision or Telemundo television networks. He also mentioned his own efforts to offer campaign videos in other languages. "We certainly should not
cede those audiences to the left," Gillespie said of groups that don't typically vote for Republicans, including many minorities. The left will "fill that vacuum, and we cannot allow that vacuum to occur."

1994: Named the legislation in the Contract With America

Significant moments:

March 1991: Rep. Dick Armey is named ranking Republican on the Joint Economic Committee and names me minority staff director.

Jan. 1993: Bill Clinton is inaugurated president. Not coincidentally, Dick Armey is elected
chairman of the House Republican Conference, ousting the more moderate Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA). He names me policy and communications director for the House Republican Conference.

Fall 1993: Armey plays a key role in defeating First Lady
Hillary Clinton's health care proposal with an October 13 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal charting its complicated structure.

Sep. 27, 1994: House Republicans unveil their Contract with America, in which I named the 10 pieces of legislation.

Nov. 8, 1994: Republicans gain 52 seats to regain control of the House for the 1st time in 40 years.

Fall 1995: Republicans in Congress and Pres. Clinton clash over budget priorities, resulting in major parts of the US government shutting down.

If you can name something, you can control it

If you can name something you can control it. I have spent a lot of my time in politics naming things. I named the 10 bills in the Contract with America--from the Tax Relief and Job Creation Act through the
Personal Responsibility Act and the Common Sense Legal Reform Act.
I wrapped the various policy proposals Elizabeth Dole had put forward throughout her campaign into "The Dole Plan for North Carolina," dubbed the Democrats' heated rhetoric in 2004 "political hate speech," and
suggested President Bush call the difference between what John Kerry was proposing to spend and what the current budget called for a "tax gap."

I am tired of having my religious convictions scorned

I am happy to accept gay people for who they are and love them, to respect the rights of those who choose not to belong to any organized religion, and to understand that some people enjoy shock value in their entertainment.

I have become tired, however, of being told that unless
I am willing to support government sanction of same-sex marriage then I am guilty of bigotry, tired of having my religious convictions scorned instead of respected, tired of my children being confronted
with shocking images every time they turn on the television or go on the internet.

A good plan beats a bad plan; any plan beats no plan

Winning campaigns are based on a coherent strategy and executed against a plan. A good plan will beat a bad plan, but any plan will beat no plan. A campaign that doesn't have an idea where its candidate is going to be scheduled 2 weeks from now, doesn't
know what message it intends to be on next week, doesn't know what ads are going to be up in 3 weeks, doesn't know what its 51% of the electorate is composed of, or doesn't have a cash-flow projection is a campaign that is likely to lose on Election Day.

Source: Winning Right, by Ed Gillespie, p. 11
, Sep 5, 2006

Planned political reporting career at Catholic U. of America

Although he found enjoyment in politics at an early age, the idea of working in that field was a reach much further than he was able to embrace: "I was fascinated by politics. I went to college [at the Catholic University of America] to be a reporter and
to cover politics. Coming from a town like Browns Mills, my brothers, sisters and I are the first generation of Gillespies to ever attend college. My parents never went," says the Chairman. "My father was an immigrant from Ireland, and Washington DC
might as well have been Athens, Greece. It seemed so far away. But I thought I could go there and be a newspaper reporter. I could cover politics. I never dreamed that I could be in politics."

"[My childhood] was fairly idyllic, playing a lot of
sandlot baseball. I had a dog and he & I would go out on long treks. It was a small town childhood," says Gillespie. "New Jersey is like two different states. There's the 201 [area code] state and the 609 state. I grew up in the 609 state.

Raised a Democrat; first job with Democrat; switched to GOP

While attending Catholic University, Gillespie worked several jobs to help support his education; at one of these positions--a Senate parking lot attendant on Capitol Hill, says Gillespie, "One of the people I parked cars with was an intern in a
congressional office and he told me of another opening in that congressional office, and I ended up interning there. That eventually led to a job and I was able to work my way up the political ladder from there."

While he recalls being drawn to the
Republican Party from a young age, the Senator he first served under was a Democrat. Gillespie's official party allegiance didn't change until his boss suddenly decided to switch parties in 1984.

"As an Irish-Catholic kid from NJ, my roots were
Democratic. My parents' families were very strongly Democrat. But like so many Irish-Catholic Democrats, I found myself relating more to Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party, which was more staunchly anti-communist and more about opportunity."

Contract with America: 10 bills in 1st 100 days of Congress.

Gillespie signed the Contract with America:

As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body, we propose not just to change its policies, but to restore the bounds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.

Within the first hundred days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given a full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote, and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny:

The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act: Incentives to small businesses

The Common Sense Legal Reforms Act: Limit punitive damages

The Citizen Legislature Act: Term limits on Congress

Further, we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation above, to ensure that the federal budget will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills. Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.